Why build an entire castle (digitally) if you are only going to use it once? In Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, we finally saw Darth Vader chillin’ at his crib, not simply stuck on one of the Empire’s many Death Stars or Star Destroyers. If memory serves, Mustafar, home of Vader’s castle and resting place of his seared and severed limbs, was one of the few planets in Rogue One not to receive a title card, though Star Wars fans immediately recognized it from the finale of Revenge of the Sith.
Like many of the ships and aliens in Rogue One, the castle was a nod to unused Ralph McQuarrie designs from The Empire Strikes Back, which featured Vader living in an “evil castle.” When watching Rogue One, the question quickly arose, why in the world would Vader build a castle on the planet where he was beaten so badly by Obi-Wan and left to die. We may not have a conclusive answer for that, but Uproxx had a conversation with Lucasfilm VP and Executive Creative Director Doug Chiang where he revealed that more answers will hopefully be explored in future installments of the franchise:
“It’s interesting, we did a lot of history exploration. Why did Vader build his castle here? Why does it look the way it does? Why does he even come here? For us, it was really figuring out that Vader built his castle on an existing structure, which was this ancient lava dam. And he built it here for a very specific reason. It was to come back here to meditate, to rejuvenate, to reconnect with himself. And it became a very spiritual place, and it was all centered around his bacta tank. And that’s where the form language all built around there. And we’ve done quite a bit of exploration of what’s on the inside of it as well, and hopefully that’ll be seen in some other film.â€
I absolutely want to see more of Vader’s home away from the Empire. What other mystical rooms fill the space, in addition to the bacta tank room and giant suspended conference room? Maybe Kylo Ren will make a pilgrimage to Mustafar and play with Pop-Pop’s toys in Star Wars: The Last Jedi. Or, more likely, if we get more Vader, the space will be explored in a different Star Wars Story.
Do you even want to see more of Vader’s vacation house? Or is mystery and imagination more powerful than anything Lucasfilm can give us? After all, every time they use Vader, I fear they will pull back the curtain too far. Share your thoughts in the comment section below!
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SOURCE: Uproxx
